1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a liquid crystal device, in particular, to a liquid crystal device capable of reducing or preventing the use of an alignment layer.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional vertically aligned liquid crystal device. As show in FIG. 1, a conventional vertically aligned liquid crystal device (VA-LCD) 100 includes a lower electrode substrate 110, an upper electrode substrate 120, a liquid crystal layer 130, a lower alignment layer 160, an upper alignment layer 150, a lower polarizer 140, and an upper polarizer 170. The liquid crystal layer 130 is disposed between the lower electrode substrate 110 and the upper electrode substrate 120. The lower alignment layer 160 is disposed between the lower electrode substrate 110 and the liquid crystal layer 130, and the upper alignment layer 150 is disposed between the upper electrode substrate 120 and the liquid crystal layer 130. In addition, the lower polarizer 140 is disposed beneath the lower electrode substrate 110 and the upper polarizer 170 is disposed above the upper electrode substrate 120. According to FIG. 1, the main function of the lower alignment layer 160 and the upper alignment layer 150 is to produce a vertical alignment of the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer 130. When a voltage is applied between the lower electrode substrate 110 and the upper electrode substrate 120, the electric field can induce the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer 130 to rotate and show a certain optical characteristic.
In the conventional vertically aligned liquid crystal device 100, the liquid crystal layer 130 relies on the lower alignment layer 160 and the upper alignment layer 150 to produce a vertical alignment of the liquid crystal molecules. Therefore, the fabrication of the lower alignment layer 160 and the upper alignment layer 150 is indispensable. However, the production cost of the vertically aligned liquid crystal device 100 can not be easily reduced due to the requirement of fabricating the lower alignment layer 160 and the upper alignment layer 150.